Chapter 25

Dan Granger’s turn:

“Dan,” Wendy said when I picked up my phone, “Mister Olaffsen on the line again.”

“Give ‘im to me,” I said. As soon as the button lit up, I picked up. “Good day, Bjorn.”

“Good morning to you, Dan. I have some news.”

“A delivery date for the new plane?”

“I assumed you would pick it up there. Flying a new aircraft home for the first time is a sensation that I much enjoy,” He said. “The news, however...”

I thinking to myself ‘Don’t disappoint my Cindy... ‘ “What news would that be?”

“After talking with your friends Johanna and Stoney and my boss, their uncle Jan, we decided to cancel the order for the Daher.”

My heart fell to the floor. An almost audible ‘whomp.’ Then I thought that we’re talking Johanna who’s a member of the redhead sisterhood and disappointing Cindy is not something she’d be party to. “What happened?”

“Stoney explains to us what you are currently doing with your Cessna twin. We – he and I – conclude that the Daher will only marginally meet your needs. We made a change...”

Now I’m wondering. “What sort of change?”

“Are you familiar with the Pilatus aircraft offerings?”

“Generally.”

“Are you at your computer?”

“Yes.”

“Pull up the data on the Pilatus PC-12 and look at it. It is a very capable aircraft, still under your FAA ‘light aircraft’ rules, but very capable. More capable. We have an older one. I suggested giving it to you, but Uncle Jan says that his nephew gets a new toy.”

I scanned the data quickly, whistling under my breath. “My goodness,” I said.

“One of these has just left the factory in Switzerland. It is going to Broomfield in your state of Colorado to be fitted out. If you find this aircraft acceptable, I will transmit to them the information that they are to contact you to configure it to your liking. I am assuming that your chief pilot will have no trouble with the larger aircraft.”

I’m thinking that Cindy’s going to wet herself – again. “She will be able to handle it. We just sent her into Florida for training. She needs qualification on the Cessna Citation II and is scheduled for the training on the Daher.”

“Those people near Disney?” he asked.

“Yes. Orlando, Florida.”

“I would recommend them for the Pilatus as well. Can she change her schedule accordingly?”

“As soon as I get off the phone with you, I will call her. She’s there with another pilot.”

“Then we should proceed?”

“Bjorn, you may proceed. Cindy may fly to Norway to thank you and Uncle Jan personally.” I paused. “And you know what?”

“What is that?”

“It would be her very first trip on an airline.”

“You are saying that all her experience, she has NOT been on a commercial airliner? She is truly a pilot, then...”

“I think so. Uh, you said that the new aircraft is just coming into the US?”

“Yes.”

“I thought that for aircraft of this price, there was usually an ordering process. Waiting list.”

“Dan, we have bought several aircraft from Pilatus in years past. We have some standing. As you Americans say, strings were pulled.”

“I can imagine,” I said. “We keep a few strings of our own handy for the odd occasion.”

“It is a way to do business,” he said.

“Yes...”

“So, we are done once more. Again. Pictures...”

“You shall have them,” I said. “And I was not joking about Cindy going to Norway. Of course, we will likely accompany Johanna and Stoney.”

“When you arrive, I will be notified. I expect dinner and flying stories and I wish to meet this ‘Cindy of the Skies‘ as she is called by Johanna.”

“You can bet on it, Bjorn.”

“We are done, then Dan Richards. You have a phone call to make.”

“I do. And thank you again, Bjorn...”

I hung up the phone. “Alan, we just got snookered,” I said loudly enough for him to hear me in his office around the corner. He was in my office in a matter of seconds.

“What’s wrong?”

“We just lost our new Daher,” I said.

“Dammit! I knew it was too good to be true. I’m glad YOU’RE the one who has to tell Cindy.”

“Well, just sit right there. I’m calling her right now.”

“Aren’t they in class?”

“Classes start at 0900,” I said. “We’ll catch ‘em early. Get her to drop the Daher class.”

“Man, man, man,” he said, shaking his head.

Now I’m starting to feel bad about pulling this on one of my best friends. I tell Siri to call Cindy, put the phone on ‘speaker’ and set it on the desk.

It rings three times before “Hey, sweetie. What’s up?”

“Uh, I need you to do something, punkin. You’re doing the Citation training this week, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Get with those people and cancel the Daher training. We’re not getting the Daher...”

“Awwww, what happened?” Her voice dripped disappointment. I felt even worse.

“Your friends Jo and Stoney decided that the Daher didn’t really meet our business needs. Said it was fine for hauling a few people around, but wouldn’t do as good as the 402 for work.”

“Awwwww, darnit!” she said. I could hear the subdued disappointment in her voice.

“Uh, yeah, and while you’re cancelling the Daher training, schedule you and Nikki for a course on the Pilatus PC-12NG.”

The squeal reverberated through the room, even AFTER getting clipped and limited by the cellphone circuits.

“Daniel Joe Richards, you are just MEAN! Seriously?” She knows my middle name isn’t ‘Joe’. That’s for effect.

“Yeah. Just got the call from Mister Olaffsen. They decided that the PC-12 is a little slower but carries a whole lot more. Our new one’s coming into the US soon and we get to decide how to fit it out.”

I looked at Alan.

“Dammit, Dan! You got me good!”

“You heard all this, Alan?” Cindy asked.

“Yeah, I did. He did that ‘we lost the Daher’ speech on me. I was feeling sorry for him having to break the bad news to you.”

“He’s soooo evil sometimes. I shall punish him at an opportune moment.”

“See that you do.”

“Wait’ll I tell Nikki.”

“You do that. I told Mister Olaffsen that you’d probably want to fly to Norway and thank him and Uncle Jan face to face.”

“You know I do.”

“We’ll do that, if Johanna and Stoney think it’s a good idea,” I said.

Me?!? Somewhere around here I need to catch up. After all I taught Cindy to love flying. She’s passed me up sooooo long ago. Just like engineering...

Dana’s turn:

Dammit, Ed! Your fault. I should still be in middle school. Instead, my desk at OUR house is repository to several senior-level engineering courses and right now I’m in a REAL workplace and my ‘supervisor’ is two years younger than me.

“Derek’s idea,” Terri said. “Add the specialized modules to the centipede. The bug. The bug goes to his prescribed destination, drops off segments with specialized functions, and leaves them...”

“And he remembers where he left them, right?”

“Of course,” Terri replied.

“So he can come back and get them.”

“Or,” she said, “covert operation. The segment is a sensor array with short-range communications capabilities. The body of the bug either backs away so it can receive and retransmit data at a higher power, or...”

“Two ways to go,” I said. “Either it keeps the data in memory for retransmission later, or it waits to rejoin the main body of the bug, which comes home...”

“And I don’t want to depend on that ‘comes home’ part. We may need a last segment with the retransmit capability.”

What’s a teenaged girl from Houston, Texas supposed to know about THIS stuff?!?

She’s supposed to know that the Department of Defense is actually paying good money for these bright ideas. Mine and the irrepressible pTerridactyl and Rachel of the Ponytail and ‘I’m just Vicki’ and ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if... ‘ Derek.

Major Kettler listens to us. “Where are you heading with this?”

I let the pTerridactyl step up. “We’re going in about nineteen different directions. The major ones are search and rescue, and some sort of evil military uses where we visit harm upon our misguided brethren whom YOU classify as enemies...”

“Equally valid,” the major said. I like him. He’s pretty down to earth. I’ve seen ‘im in his dress uniform the first day he showed up at our labs. Very impressive. Now, in what he calls ‘Class B’ uniform, he’s a terrifically intelligent guy who asks good questions and offers some interesting possibilities. Oh, don’t get upset. He’s NOT Ed. Just a smart guy. I’m living in a universe where smart people are almost too common. It’s hard for the flame of the candle to shine when it’s on the surface of the sun.

“We can work on the application pretty easily,” I added. “We have to work on the automated re-mating routine...”

“So he can find his butt and reattach it,” Derek added. “Right, Dad?”

Major Kettler had made the understandable error of calling Derek ‘son’ on his first contact. Derek’s not a dummy.

“Wait’ll he meets my sister,” he told me, surreptitiously.

“Derek, don’t set yourself up for disappointment. The major’s a military guy. He’s been places. Met people.”

“And none of ‘em’s been MY sister,” Derek injected.

What can you say? “True. But there’s more to the equation than that, Derek.”

“I know. But I gotta try.”

“What if he’s the wrong one?”

“I don’t wanna go there,” he said.

“Reality, Derek. It intrudes on dreams...”

“I know. Call this a feeling, though.”

“Now you’re sounding like Grandma Desai.”

Giggle. “I asked her to do one of those ‘Shiva’ things.”

“Your rabbi’s gonna crap himself.”

“Like Terri says. I’m covering all the eventualities.”

“You’re getting relationship advice from a thirteen year old girl...”

“Yeah, I could ask you or Cindy, I suppose...”

I shirked. “Let’s not be mean...”

“You know you’re my big sister, don’t you?”

“And that fact keeps me awake at night,” I laughed.

End of the day.

“Ed, rescue me...”

“What’s wrong now, princess?”

I like STILL being a princess to this guy. “I fear I am going to DREAM about a robot leaving segments of itself all across the landscape.”